Trump’s former lawyer Cohen pleas for leniency to avoid prison

Donald Trump’s former lawyer has pleaded for leniency, telling a judge he should be spared from prison because he’s spilling secrets to Special Counsel Robert Mueller about the president and his company.

Michael Cohen’s lawyers made the request on Friday, one day after his dramatic appearance in federal court, where he admitted he lied to Congress about the Trump Organisation’s effort to build a Moscow tower.

Only months ago, Cohen’s bid to remain free would have been unimaginable. In April, after FBI agents raided his home, office and hotel suite, he appeared headed to prison in a separate tax-evasion and campaign-finance case built on what appeared to be overwhelming evidence.

“Michael’s decision to cooperate required and requires singular determination and personal conviction,” his lawyers said in a court filing late Friday in Manhattan federal court. “He could have fought the government and continued to hold the party line, positioning himself perhaps for a pardon or clemency, but, instead -- for himself, his family and his country -- he took personal responsibility for his own wrongdoing and contributed, and is prepared to contribute, to an investigation that he views as thoroughly legitimate and vital.”